The Acquisition and Proper Usage Of LLINs As A Primary Preventive Measure Against Malaria In The Batibo Health Area In North West Cameroon

Abstract:

Each year, there is an estimated 220 million deaths
caused by malaria leading to approximately one million deaths mostly among
children under five years of age. There is a growing international agreement to
use prevention and treatments methods that are available against malaria. The
most effective method include; the use of mosquito bed nets treated with long
lasting insecticide (LLINs) to avoid mosquito and to kill mosquito and spraying
the inside wall of the houses with similar to kill malaria carrying mosquitoes.
In 2013 an estimated 136million LLINs were delivered in endemic countries, a
major increase over the 70million bed nets were funded for delivery in 2014 and
suggesting an even stronger pipeline for 2015. Population access to LLINs
remain below the target universal coverage and has not appreciably improved.

Malaria being a fatal disease is becoming difficult to
prevent and control because of the habit of increasing resistance to the
insecticides of the female anopheles mosquito.

In Cameroon, malaria remains a public health problem
and responsible for 31% of consultations and 44% of hospitalization in health
facilities. It is responsible for 18% of deaths occurring in Cameron .In children
less than 5 years 31% of deaths are due to malaria.

The use of LLINs in Cameroon is still a problem, that
is why in world malaria days from 2013-2015 the theme has been “invest in the
future, defeat malaria to call attention to the effort to finish the job this
2015 calling for high level commitment to the vision of a world free of
malaria”.

The general objective was to find out the factors
affecting the acquisition and proper usage of LLINs as a primary preventive
measure against malaria and to propose possible solutions to identified
problems.

The specific objectives of the study were:

1.To assess the
community’s knowledge on malaria prevention.

2.To assess
their practical measures used in preventing malaria through the use of LLINs.

3.To find out
the proportion of the community with LLINs properly installed and utilized.

4.To ascertain
the constraints encountered by the community in its proper usage and propose
possible solution to any identified problems.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was employed in
which data was collected on the acquisition and proper use of LLINs in the
Batibo health area.

The study population constituted of the inhabitants of
Batibo health area community.

A sample of 100 respondents were randomly selected
using the systematic random sampling method to represent the entire population
of Batibo Health Area). Results show that on thedistribution of respondents relative to whether they have LLINs;
it was observed that out of the 100 respondents 62% had LLINs while 38% did not
have, 12 (19.35%) of the respondents said they have never had LLINs ,
28(45.26%) said LLINs are not enough while 22( 35.48%) said the one they had is
bad. The reason why LLINs may not be enough maybe because of increase in
household members as 46 % of the respondents have more than four members per
household.

It was equally observed that out of the 38 respondents
who had LLINs they were not properly used as only 10(26.5%) said they sleep
under LLIN every night,8(21.0%) said when they feel cold and 20(52.6%)said they
like.

Conversely, out of the 38 respondents who had LLINs
16(42.1%) said everybody in the household sleep under LLINs while 22(57.9%)
said not everybody sleep under LLINs. It was observed that not everybody sleep
under LLINs because 13(34.3%) of the respondents said they were old, 2(5.2%)
said they do not know why and 2(5.2%) said it is because of negligence.

In conclusion, from the results obtained it was found
out that; most people do not use nets because the nets are insufficient and may
be because of increasing number of per household compared to the number of
LLINs given per household. In the community the relationship between mosquito
and malaria well known but many people are not aware of the night-biting female
anopheles mosquito that transmit the malaria parasite may be contributing to
the fact that many people still reluctant to use the net properly as a primary
preventive measure against malaria.

The peripheral level has a great task in the
implementation of the proper use of LLINs and to let the net users understand
that heat production and not breathing well are minor effects to some people at
the beginning of the use of LLIN but after sometime these effects will
disappear.